2.8.13

Morning Read: Gulati Dines With, Discusses Donovan

Sunil Gulati offers some thoughts about the future of the kinda, sorta LA Galaxy attacker; Tab Ramos lists the players he'll bring to the U-20 tournament in Mexico and there's a conspicuous absence.

BY
Jesse Yomtov
Posted
February 08, 2013
9:32 AM

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In the latest edition of “Someone talks about a meal with Landon Donovan,” USSF president Sunil Gulati says he had dinner (WHOA!) with the 30-year-old a few weeks ago in New York. “[Donovan] ordered the tasting menu. I had the vegetarian tempura,” Gulati revealed. He did go on to make a good point, that the USMNT has “got to go on without Landon at some point—today, six months from today, or two years from today.” We should all probably stop concerning ourselves and enjoy the vegetarian tempura.

Tab Ramos named his 18-man squad for the CONCACAF U-20 Championship, i.e., World Cup qualifying tournament. The roster features 11 pros, five of them in MLS, including No. 55 on the ASN 100, Real Salt Lake’s Luis Gil. Two are expected to be added to the roster in the coming days. Maybe John Anthony Brooks, who didn’t make the 18 for Germany U-20’s friendly on Wednesday? Why was Marc Pelosi omitted? Well, he was added to Liverpool’s squad for the Europa League. That’s awesome for him, but Liverpool not releasing the midfielder is an interesting move. It’s unlikely that he’ll see even a second on the pitch and you’d imagine that Liverpool’s American ownership would put up a fight on a move that hurts the U.S. qualifying bid.

After earning his first cap in the snoozer vs. Canada, Will Bruin has his sights set on being part of the Gold Cup squad this summer. “It starts here with Houston and having a good beginning of the year here and showing that I can be in form come time when Jurgen [Klinsmann] makes decisions,” the 23-year-old told MLSSoccer.com. He may be down a bit on the depth chart now, but Klinsmann has shown a tendency to pick in-form players (particularly up top) and if Bruin is playing well come May, he could definitely see himself on the team.

Sacha Kljestan: done and dusted. Good for him. Now, can we talk about the left midfield performance in Honduras?

This morning, #USMNT midfielder Sacha Kljestan signed a new contract with Anderlecht thru 2016

Not U.S.-centric, but Brian Phillips wrote a great column on match-fixing. He poses an excellent question, with even with the Champions League not above suspicion in the wake of the latest report: “How can we avoid getting skeptical when we watch a muffed save or a bad call, whether the skepticism is justified or not?”